Seven to compete under huge command, control contract

Seven companies won contracts to compete for task orders under a 10-year, $19.3 billion program to provide engineering, logistics and acquisition service support for Army command, control, communication, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems.

Earlier this month, the Army's Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command at Fort Monmouth, N.J., selected Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., CACI International Inc., Computer Sciences Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. as the four large company winners.

Sensor Technologies Inc. of Red Bank, N.J., USFalcon Inc. of Lowell, Mass., and ViaTech Inc. of Eatontown, N.J., were the three small company awardees. The contract has a five-year base period and a five-year option period.

The Strategic Services Sourcing program will provide cradle-to-grave support to C4ISR systems. It consolidates five existing contracts to let the Army quickly buy engineering, logistical and business operations services.

Under the contract, task orders are anticipated for thermal imaging, imaging intensification, advanced optics for night vision devices, counter mine site technology, signals intelligence, and electronic warfare measures, to name a few, said J. Keith Kellogg, executive vice president of CACI's mission systems business group.

"Every bit of the work we are talking about supports the warfighter in the field," Kellogg said. "It saves lives and allows us to win on the battlefield. This is an absolutely critical part of the military's winning on the battlefield because C4ISR is the silver bullet in weaponry. If you get the C4ISR part of it right, then we're going to win the fights into the future."

Fort Monmouth?home to many of the Army's technical program offices?is one of several bases slated to be shut down under the Base Realignment and Closure program. The Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command, along with other Army IT offices at Fort Monmouth, is to be relocated to the Aberdeen Proving Ground or Fort Meade, both in Maryland.

Fort Monmouth's closure will not affect the contract work, Kellogg said, adding that CACI will move along with the command to do the work.

"It won't affect the contract because every one of these things that [the Army] is trying to solve is a warfighter issue," he said "These things will not go away in a night. They are all critical needs for the U.S. military, and they are part of the Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command's master task list."